Before Clive Barker or splatterpunk, Lansdale wrote this pioneering serial killer novel, set in Houston. "The closest thing to what I wanted to do at that time was the work of Sam Peckinpah," Lansdale says. "I wanted to make violence nasty, I wanted to make it bother you, but I wanted to make the story compelling. The thing that made me write Act of Love was anger. I was angry that so much attention was directed to psychopaths and murderers and very little attention given to their victims."